Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I’m sorry. I should have mentioned it.

iPhone 14 Pro Max 1TB.
Battery health: 94% (Launch date iPhone)
iOS version: 16.5.1
Total hours usage: 7 Hours 27 Minutes.
Battery life 100%-1% all on a single charge.
Battery health has been degraded to 93%.

IMG_7073.jpg
IMG_7074.jpg
 

JulianL

macrumors 68000
Feb 2, 2010
1,665
663
London, UK
I don't know how I get so lucky but since about the iPhone X I've never seen anything other than 100% for my battery health right up to the day I trade in my phone. I've upgraded every year since my X so I never have a battery that is more than a year old, give or take a few weeks to account for slightly different latest-iPhone release dates each year, but even so. When I charge I always do it overnight with at least 8 hours on the charger so I don't feel the need for fast charging and just use a 10W wireless charger to charge it from about 20% - 25% all the way up to 100% maybe every third day (I'm a light user). My iPhone 14 Pro Max bought on launch day is still showing 100% battery health.

I suppose maybe it is all down to me being a light user so only doing about 1/3rd of the charge cycles compared to someone charging their phone every night. In fact it's maybe more extreme than that - before upgrading to 16.5.x I could comfortably go 4 days between charges and would sometimes even stretch it to 5 days out of curiosity. Even at the 5 day mark I was typically still at around 10% battery at the end of the day. Since 16.5.0 and all the subsequent updates however I now typically need to charge at the end of day 3 and if I don't my phone will usually die sometime in the early evening on day 4 so I can't risk going 4 days between charges any more. So in the good old pre-16.5.x days, i.e. about the first 6 months of owning my current 14 Pro Max, I was charging more like 4 times less often than someone who charges daily.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pinkyyy 💜🍎

JDJones92

macrumors member
Oct 28, 2021
40
41
I seem to have drastically improved my 13 Pro life (on 16.5.1 right now)

I am testing the changes I made with my partner to see if it helps her as well but if it does I will post my findings.
Any update on this? Would love it if you unlocked some secret battery saving tips for us 🙏
 

PhillyGuy72

macrumors 68040
Sep 13, 2014
3,038
4,470
Philadelphia, PA USA
This latest update 16.6, my 13 Pro Max battery drain went from bad to the absolute worse.
*The "Battery heath" STILL says 90%, no ques. that it's stuck on 90...been like this since Jan. I suspect the true health could be in the low 80s. Just guessing... And I honestly would like to get that worked out so I can get a new battery when it actually hits 80% 😐

(unrelated, my update on my Apple Watch Ultra...battery has taken a noticeable hit!)
 

cigz

macrumors regular
Nov 7, 2016
218
400
My battery life has been bad since 16.5.1 and it’s still bad. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong but it’s driving me nuts. I don’t have any third-party apps or VPNs, and Background App Refresh is off.
it's not that you're doing anything wrong, my battery life on 13 Pro Max has been trash since updating to 16.5 and looks like there's a lot more people that feel the same.
At this point I'm thinking of updating to iOS 17 cause why not
 

boswald

macrumors 65816
Jul 21, 2016
1,311
2,188
Florida
it's not that you're doing anything wrong, my battery life on 13 Pro Max has been trash since updating to 16.5 and looks like there's a lot more people that feel the same.
At this point I'm thinking of updating to iOS 17 cause why not
It’s tempting for me too, but all that diagnostic code running in the background can’t be good either. I guess I’ll just adjust my usage habits and see what happens.
 

Reverend Benny

macrumors 6502a
Apr 28, 2017
773
525
Europe
With iOS 16.6 my battery life is a bit better than before. 13 Pro Max with %86 battery health here.
Same here, iPhone 13 pro, 86% health and 16.6 really boosted the battery time. I'm impressed. This update must have ironed out some mayor battery draining bug cuz don't think I have experienced this good battery performance in a long time.

Hope it stays this way.

Edit: I did reinstall the fitness app that another user identified as a battery-hog if it had been uninstalled, that might have an effect on the improved performance too.
 
Last edited:

Reverend Benny

macrumors 6502a
Apr 28, 2017
773
525
Europe
I’m a bit astonished by how different the experiences are between people with the same or similar iPhones. For some people it’s one of the best versions, for others is a battery nightmare.
I think that shows the complexity of things.
There can be many reasons why we see good or bad batterytime and its not only related to OS updates, or more so, its more than the OS that can cause battery drain.

Apps can cause battery drain and sometimes people do forget to update their apps when they update the OS.
One OS version can with one particular app version cause battery drain.

Other reasons can be:
* We all have different configured phones (settings, background activities, memory usage and models)
* Some models even if its the same model have different HW
* We live in different locations with different networks, a US phone and a EU phone can have different hardware when it comes to the comms part
* We use them differently
* We don't know the status of the phone, how old is the battery, is it damanged?
** When we compare we generally do it with how the phone was when we got it.
* Mayor updates have new features that can be more CPU intensive
* Some security patches can have an impact on performance
+ many more reasons...

But today there aren't a reason not to update, some of the updates fix major bugs and security issues.
And its not only about protecting the user of the phone, its also about protecting the users contacts that's also have data on the device.
People seem to forget that they are carrying data about friends, work etc that also need to be protected
 

FeliApple

macrumors 68040
Apr 8, 2015
3,653
2,048
I think that shows the complexity of things.
There can be many reasons why we see good or bad batterytime and its not only related to OS updates, or more so, its more than the OS that can cause battery drain.

Apps can cause battery drain and sometimes people do forget to update their apps when they update the OS.
One OS version can with one particular app version cause battery drain.

Other reasons can be:
* We all have different configured phones (settings, background activities, memory usage and models)
* Some models even if its the same model have different HW
* We live in different locations with different networks, a US phone and a EU phone can have different hardware when it comes to the comms part
* We use them differently
* We don't know the status of the phone, how old is the battery, is it damanged?
** When we compare we generally do it with how the phone was when we got it.
* Mayor updates have new features that can be more CPU intensive
* Some security patches can have an impact on performance
+ many more reasons...

But today there aren't a reason not to update, some of the updates fix major bugs and security issues.
And its not only about protecting the user of the phone, its also about protecting the users contacts that's also have data on the device.
People seem to forget that they are carrying data about friends, work etc that also need to be protected
While what you’re saying is true, I think there are two different sections of battery life: the one you can control and the one you can’t control. I think that’s the main aspect that bothers people.

Two new phones on the same iOS version (the original one if you like just to avoid that aspect) can have wildly different runtimes due to what you mentioned:

-settings (brightness, push mail, background app refresh, etc)
-usage (this is obvious, gaming drains a lot more than reading with iBooks)
-signal strength (especially whilst on cellular data, iPhones hate having a consistently low signal and battery life will plummet).

However, why do people complain a lot more about iOS updates? Because they obliterate battery life when compared to the original version and you can’t control them. Everything I mentioned before can be controlled, even if it can be inconvenient; I can put my iPhone on Airplane Mode if I have no signal; if an app drains my battery, I can stop using it; I can tweak settings like push mail and background app refresh if I need to; I can decrease brightness.

I can’t downgrade iOS.
 

Nithinan

macrumors newbie
Nov 6, 2022
8
2
Activity Monitor.

I've now been using the phone for over a week and it's still good. The phone is back to being very fast, and completely cold when I take it off the charger in the morning. Good luck

I'm really annoyed because I think this bug was affecting my phone for many months, at first it only manifested as the phone being very slightly warm in the morning, things got worse very gradually and nothing in the phone could even give you a hint as to what was wrong.
Hi friend iOS 16.6 Activity Monitor looking for the Fitness app?
 

JulianL

macrumors 68000
Feb 2, 2010
1,665
663
London, UK
While what you’re saying is true, I think there are two different sections of battery life: the one you can control and the one you can’t control. I think that’s the main aspect that bothers people.

...

However, why do people complain a lot more about iOS updates? Because they obliterate battery life when compared to the original version and you can’t control them. Everything I mentioned before can be controlled, even if it can be inconvenient; I can put my iPhone on Airplane Mode if I have no signal; if an app drains my battery, I can stop using it; I can tweak settings like push mail and background app refresh if I need to; I can decrease brightness.

I can’t downgrade iOS.

True, once you've upgraded and been hit you can't downgrade but beyond that you can control iOS upgrades although the wisdom of doing that is debatable and I am annoyed at Apple for putting people in this situation.

I posted a while ago that these issues of battery life being negatively impacted by iOS upgrades - for some people - needs to be addressed by Apple as a matter of urgency because it is not just a battery life issue but also potentially a security issue if it means that some people don't update iOS because of concerns about battery life thus denying themselves the latest security patches. I got quite a few replies to my comment saying that it really is only very few people who are affected by an iOS update having a significant impact on their battery life so it was very silly not to upgrade. Fair enough I though, maybe I am being silly sticking on whatever iOS version I was on at the time on my 14 Pro Max (so it wouldn't have been that old), I'll upgrade. Well, guess what - ever since that update my battery life is about 70% of what it was before. My battery health is still 100% but the time I get between recharging is noticeably worse.

Now I do upgrade every release of course in the hope that one of those new iOS versions will restore the battery life I had before, and I'm almost certainly going to get a 15 Pro Max in September so hopefully that will wipe the slate clean again, but I am going to be much more cautious updating iOS in future having now been bitten by this upgrade battery-life angst. I really hope Apple cann get a handle on this problem and fix it very soon.
 

Razer(x)

macrumors regular
May 7, 2014
203
13
I just noticed my screen idle is extremely low, like 30 mins in the past 10 days

What could be causing the issue?
 

FeliApple

macrumors 68040
Apr 8, 2015
3,653
2,048
True, once you've upgraded and been hit you can't downgrade but beyond that you can control iOS upgrades although the wisdom of doing that is debatable and I am annoyed at Apple for putting people in this situation.
Me too! I wish people (myself included) could update without worries. Sadly, it’s always been just a choice between compatibility and performance/battery life. As long as that dichotomy exists, I’m afraid not updating will always be a very valid approach, especially after seeing the results of this approach.
I posted a while ago that these issues of battery life being negatively impacted by iOS upgrades - for some people - needs to be addressed by Apple as a matter of urgency because it is not just a battery life issue but also potentially a security issue if it means that some people don't update iOS because of concerns about battery life thus denying themselves the latest security patches.
I don’t think enough people stay behind. Apple doesn’t care because the overwhelming majority just updates regardless. It’s obviously damaging to those of us who stay behind, because it means that Apple just doesn’t care, but I’ve come to terms with the fact that there’s nothing I can do.
I got quite a few replies to my comment saying that it really is only very few people who are affected by an iOS update having a significant impact on their battery life so it was very silly not to upgrade.
This is completely false.
Fair enough I though, maybe I am being silly sticking on whatever iOS version I was on at the time on my 14 Pro Max (so it wouldn't have been that old), I'll upgrade. Well, guess what - ever since that update my battery life is about 70% of what it was before. My battery health is still 100% but the time I get between recharging is noticeably worse.
I’m surprised, because like I said, people who upgrade every year aren’t typically affected. This is a non-issue to them. Apple almost never impacts battery life on original versions of iOS, and if they do, they typically solve those issues. Part of the reason for which people deny that iOS updates impact battery life, is that they upgrade every year. Of course you aren’t going to notice if you just get the latest iPhone all the time. Grab a device with three, four major updates and then share your experience.
Now I do upgrade every release of course in the hope that one of those new iOS versions will restore the battery life I had before, and I'm almost certainly going to get a 15 Pro Max in September so hopefully that will wipe the slate clean again, but I am going to be much more cautious updating iOS in future having now been bitten by this upgrade battery-life angst. I really hope Apple cann get a handle on this problem and fix it very soon.
Like I said, if you upgrade every year this isn’t an issue for you. One minor update affecting battery life is typically resolved in the next minor update. Apple will never fix this. It has been happening from the beginning.

I’d be very surprised if your specific issue on the 14 Pro Max isn’t solved in some version of iOS 16.
 

rob2bob

macrumors member
Oct 26, 2021
59
47
Not saying this will work for all of you....

Since iOS 16.5 and especially iOS 16.6, my phone has been warm most of the time and battery drain horrendous. Mail running in the background is huge. So I deleted all my mail accounts off the phone. Did a hard reset. Installed the mail accounts back on, and for now zero background mail running.

Over 18 hours my battery is 88% from a 100% charge whereas before it would have been 15% by now.

PS. Find My also running a lot in background. Removed my 2 AirTags and added back on again. Also cured! (for now)
 
Last edited:

Motionblurrr

macrumors 65816
Jul 1, 2008
1,303
1,624
Not saying this will work for all of you....

Since iOS 16.5 and especially iOS 16.6, my phone has been warm most of the time and battery drain horrendous. Mail running in the background is huge. So I deleted all my mail accounts off the phone. Did a hard reset. Installed the mail accounts back on, and for now zero background mail running.

Over 18 hours my battery is 88% from a 100% charge whereas before it would have been 15% by now.

PS. Find My also running a lot in background. Removed my 2 AirTags and added back on again. Also cured! (for now)
Hmmm your experience of battery drain and being warm is similar to mine. Did you delete the 3rd party app emails too?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.